1960 – John F. Kennedy

How TIME Covered the News: The political powerhouse with the Bostonian accent narrowly waltzed into the White House – but the Kennedy family was just as likely to be seen in the celebrity pages as the politics pages. New President John F. Kennedy had the force of the dynasty behind him, with everything to prove and nothing to lose as he took charge of a world grappling with Communism and the Cold War.

“Kennedy won his victory with the strength of personality and tactic. The U.S. had little known or cared about the boyish, tousle-haired Massachusetts Senator until he erupted on his primary campaign last year. With detached fascination they watched him lift the nomination out of the hands of seasoned pros, felt the incredible force of his bandwagon organization as it coursed over the U.S. Over the months he etched the image of a driving personality, the peculiar quality of his hasty rhetoric that seemed to magnetize though it lacked warmth.”